The subject matter described herein relates generally to electrical devices and, more particularly, to heat exchange assemblies for use with an electrical device and methods of assembling an electrical device.
At least some known electrical devices include a housing and an electrical component that is positioned within the housing. The housing includes a pair of outer walls, a pair of wedge locks coupled between the outer walls, and a heat sink coupled to the outer walls. In addition, known electrical devices include a heat exchange assembly that includes a heat spreader bar coupled to the electrical component and the wedge lock to facilitate transferring heat from the component to the heat sink. Known heat spreader bars include a solid plate (Cu or Al) that forms a tortuous heat path from the component, through the heat spreader bar, through the wedge lock, and to the heat sink. Because of the distance heat must travel along the heat path from the electrical component to the heat sink, known electrical devices have a limited heat transfer capacity.
During assembly of the electrical system within the housing, non-planarity and height mismatches between the hosing and the electrical components may occur. Due to the limited flexibility of the solid materials (heatspreader bars) and the planar architecture of the electrical housing, the thermal interface materials (TIM) between the various components along the thermal path are required to be thick, compliant, and include sufficient compressibility to accommodate the dimensional tolerances required to assembly the electrical device. This results in a substantially large thermal resistance contribution from the thermal interface materials which reduces the efficiency of heat transfer from the electrical component to the heat sink.
During operation, the electrical component generates heat. As the amount of heat generated by the component is increased the component operating temperature increases. As the temperature of the electrical component is increased, an operation of the electrical device may be adversely affected, and an operational reliability of the electrical component is reduced. Moreover, over time, the increased operating temperature may cause damage and/or failure of the electrical component, which results in an increase in the cost of operating and maintaining the electrical device.